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UNITED STATES f PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN 1V. FOX, OF CHANUTE, KANSAS, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO JOHN 1V. EATON, OF SAME PLACE.

LOCOMOTIVE ASH-PAN.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 549,120, dated November 5, 1895.

Application tiled l une 29, 1895.

To all wtom/ it may concern:

Be it known that l, JOHN W. FOX, a citizen of the United States, residing at Ohanute, in the county of Neosho and State Kansas, have invented a new and useful Locomotive Ash- Pan, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in locomotive ash-pans which are adapted to be cleared of the ashes without requiring the fireman to get beneath the engine or the stopping of the latter to dump the ashes and cinders.

The object of the invention is to scrape the sliding cut-off at the bottom of the ash-pan and to obviate the lodgment of ashes and cinders between the said cut-off and its guides.

Other objects will become apparent as the invention is disclosed and understood, and to this end the improvement consists of novel features which hereinafter will be more fully described and claimed.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a perspective view of a locomotive ash-pan embodying the essence of the present invention, the cut-off being partially withdrawn. Fig. 2 is a vertical longitudinal section thereof. Fig. 3 is a cross-section of the same. Fig. 4L is a detail view in section, on an enlarged scale, of the edge portion of the cut-off and the guide therefor.

The ash-pan, which may be of usual form, has outwardly-extending anges 1 along the upper edges of its sides 2 to receive the fastenings by means of which the said pan is secured to the framework of the engine. The bottom 3 is formed with a series of dischargeopenings 4: at intervals in its length, and these discharge-openings extend the entire distance between the sides 2, so as to clear the pan of all ashes and cinders when the cut-off 5 is drawn out. Scraper-blades 6 extend vertically and are located at the front ends of the dischargeopenings 4, and are mounted in vertical guides 7, provided on the inner faces of the sides 2. These scraper-blades serve to clean the cut-off and insure the complete discharge of the ashes and cinders when the said cut-off is drawn out. That end of the ash-pan facing the engineer and fireman is designated as the front end in contradistinction to that end of the pan facing the front of the engine, and

Serial No. 554,469. (No model.)

is to be so understood in the-accompanying description and the appended claim.

The cut-off 5 is a metallic plate whose edge portions 8 are reinforced or thickened, preferably by folding a portion of the plate upon itself, and this cut-off has an opening 9 to register with the front opening in the bottom of the ash-pan, so as to facilitate the discharge of the ashes and cinders. When the cut-off is pushed forward,the opening 9 thereof comes over that portion of the botton lying between the openings 4:. A lever 10 is pivoted between its ends to a convenient portion of the engine and extends within convenient reach of the engineer or fireman, so as to be operated when it is required to move the cut-off to discharge the ashes from the ash-pan. This lever is connected at its lower end by means of a link v11 with the cut-off.

Guides 12 are provided for the edge portions of the cut-off to operate in, and are formed by strips 13, which are made fast to the sides 2, and which have their horizontal portions extending over the reinforced edge portions S of the cut-off and their inner edges 111 bent downwardly so as to extend over and along the inner edges of the said thickened edge portions 8, thereby preventing the lodgment of ashes and cinders upon the said reinforced edges 8 and the entrance of the same into the guides 12. These strips 13 are L-shaped and their vertical portions are secured to the sides 2 in any convenient manner, and these strips, in addition to forming the guides 12, serve as deflectors to shed the ashes and cinders for the purposes aforesaid.

The invention is simple and can be easily operated and can be applied to any pattern of engine on the road, and in constructing the same for a special use it is obvious that various changes in the form, proportion, and the minor details of construction may be resorted to without departing from the principle or sacrificing any of the advantages of this invention. i

The most ordinary way of operating the cutoff will be by means ofthe leverrlO. However, in some instances steam, compressed air, or other media maybe employed to advantage for operating the cut-off, thereby placing the IOO same under the control of the engineer, as a cylinder' and piston of ordinary construction can be operatively connected in any of the usual ways with the cut-off, and the pipe con' vcying the steam or other media to the cylinder can be supplied with a throttle which can be operated by the engineer When it is required to dump or discharge the ashes.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed as new is- The herein-speciied locomotive ash pan having a series of discharge openings in its bottom, vertically-disposed scraper blades arranged at the front ends of the said discharge openings, a cut-oit operating over and upon the ash pan bottom and having a discharge opening to register With a discharge opening ot' the bottom, said cut-off being a flat plate having thickened or reinforced edge portions, and L-shaped strips secured to the inner 'faces of the ash pan sides and having theirhorzontal portions extending over the upper sides ot my own I have hereto aixed 1n y signature in 3o the presence of two witnesses.

JOHN W. FOX. lVitnesses:

B. F. SHINN, J. l. F. CAs'lE. 

